A Blade and a Ring (The Chain Breaker Book 7) Read online

  Was that what Master Jaremal was implying?

  “I can use the patterns,” Gavin said, making a point of speaking softly. He wanted Master Jaremal to come closer to him.

  “And what about this pattern?” Master Jaremal still had not moved his hands, the blue arcing from fingertip to fingertip, from thumb to thumb, and creating a powerful burst within his hands as if preparing to release that ball of energy.

  “I can’t do that,” Gavin said.

  “What would happen if I were to unleash this upon you?”

  If he did that, Gavin would have to draw on the power within the ring immediately. He suspected it had enough strength to allow him to withstand any magic that this El’aras master might be able to throw at him. That wasn’t what Gavin was supposed to do, though. He had his connection to the ring, but he had to find and master the El’aras ability within himself now, despite how much he had been struggling with it.

  Anna had taught him techniques, basic aspects of his magic using the core reserves he could feel, but drawing on his power in other ways had proved challenging for him.

  And he had to be careful that he didn’t harm the master, so he couldn’t attack him.

  Unless that was what Master Jaremal wanted from him…

  Perhaps Master Jaremal had been holding back.

  He hadn’t demonstrated anything to him. Gavin had tried to use the power within himself, and he’d shown he was a skilled fighter, but they didn’t want him to fight. All of the El’aras were skilled at fighting, at least with a sword. What Gavin had, and what he was, was something different.

  He was the Champion—whatever that meant. He had seen evidence of a prophecy, but it had been manufactured.

  Still, it seemed as if Master Jaremal believed there was something more to it.

  Gavin focused on the core reserves and let himself fill with that power, feeling every bit of it as it began to build within him. The power flowed out through him while he concentrated on the energy. He stayed connected to his core reserves, and as he did, he started to flex that power outward, trying to first draw it deep within him and then push it out with as much strength as he could summon.

  He felt resistance and started to push again… and again.

  Gavin closed his eyes. Master Jaremal had mentioned something about patterns. That had to be significant, though why would it be? Something about what he had done to Gavin had to matter in all of this.

  Energy sizzled around him, and he could detect a pattern to it. He hadn’t paid attention to that before, but recognizing the pattern, he immediately understood how to defend himself.

  And he understood what Master Jaremal was getting at.

  The defense was simple, a technique he had demonstrated to Gavin repeatedly. Gavin traced it with just his fingers, much like the attack Master Jaremal was using on him. As he did, he pushed a tiny amount of his energy out through his fingertips and into the pattern to activate it.

  His magic struck the barrier around him, shattering the energy, and Master Jaremal fell back. He locked eyes with Gavin and tipped his head in acknowledgment.

  “That’s it?” Gavin asked.

  “Did you expect something more?”

  “I did what you wanted.”

  Master Jaremal snorted. “You came here to learn, Champion,” he said with a sneer on his face. “And you have just accomplished what a child can do. Congratulations.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The El’aras stronghold of Arashil sat in the heart of the forest, surrounded by towering oak and pine, though there was a smattering of unfamiliar trees as well. When Gavin had first come to this part of the forest, he had found himself drawn to the trees. Their massive trunks were coated in a rough, irregular bark, and the smallest of them were twenty feet around. Branches stretched out from them, covered with velvety leaves. The ground was littered with small wooden thorns that none of the El’aras wanted to get close to. Gavin had attempted to touch one when he had first come upon them, but he had been advised to avoid them. He wasn’t sure if they were poisonous or sacred. With the El’aras, either one was a possibility.

  The rest of the settlement was built out of a dark gray stone that seemed to have been quarried from someplace far away. He hadn’t seen signs of stone like that anywhere else, though the structures themselves looked to be impossibly old. Moss and vines covered a few of the tall, stone structures, but for the most part, the forest left the settlement alone.

  This place had an ancient quality to it, which gave it a sense of age, though there was also evidence of life and the people who resided here. When Gavin had left the city of Yoran, he had thought he’d be going to one of the El’aras cities, not a settlement like this. But Anna thought he needed more time training before they went to a city.

  Master Jaremal had reached the settlement ahead of Gavin, leaving him to wander through the forest on his own, almost as a punishment. Luckily, Gavin had paid attention as they had gone deeper into the forest, so navigating back to the settlement had been simple, but perhaps the reprimand was justified. Master Jaremal was not wrong, and Gavin should have understood what was going on sooner. As soon as he recognized the pattern used against him, he had been able to counter it easily using a basic skill. Maybe there was a more complicated technique that Master Jaremal wanted to use on him, but so far, the technique had been easy for Gavin to manage.

  He looked around and spotted several other El’aras, but it was the ones he couldn’t see that he focused on. He knew there were others surrounding the entire settlement, hiding within the trees and providing protection, which made him feel strange. Gavin was accustomed to being the one offering the protection, not receiving it.

  Along the road stood an older building near the far edge of the settlement, where the Order of Notharin had taken over. He had not seen them nearly as much as he thought he would have since coming to Arashil. He needed to understand more about what the Order knew of Tristan and what he might have done, but Gavin had not taken the opportunity to do so yet. Perhaps that was a mistake. More than that, he had a sense that Anna and Master Jaremal didn’t necessarily trust the Order. Given everything that had taken place, he wouldn’t be terribly surprised to learn that there were unreliable El’aras, even those who claimed to be interested in helping. And they had actually helped.

  “You seem upset,” a voice said from beside him.

  Gavin turned to see Anna making her way over from one of the nearby buildings. She was dressed in a cloak that matched the colors of the forest, and her fluid movement suggested that she was calling on her own power constantly—which Gavin suspected she was. He still hadn’t mastered that aspect of his power, not knowing how to hold it consistently, or continuously, to essentially enhance and enchant himself as he did something as basic as walking.

  “I think Master Jaremal wanted to give me a lesson in humility,” Gavin said.

  She smiled slightly. “That has long been his favorite strategy. I remember learning from him when I was a child. He made a point of showing me how little I knew.”

  Gavin thought he caught sight of Master Jaremal in the distance, but the man disappeared quickly. “First, he wanted me to demonstrate what I can do, then he made a point of telling me how much I lacked, and then he wanted me to show him how to get free of the hold he had on me.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “It took a while.”

  “You should have known the technique to escape from anything he would use to hold you.”

  Gavin nodded slowly. “I tried to use the ring—”

  “That is not why you are here, Gavin Lorren,” Anna said.

  He glanced over to her. He had always thought Anna lovely, impossibly beautiful, and even among the El’aras she was breathtaking. There was a hardness to her as well, which he found equally attractive.

  “I understand that he doesn’t want me to use that power so he can teach me the right way,” he said.

  He thought about the kind of power Maste
r Jaremal had been working with him on, and the way he had described that power. It was a technique Gavin was supposed to control, one that would help him master his magic. And there was something about the way that Master Jaremal had said the word “Champion” that alluded to something more.

  He sighed. “The problem is that we know there’s more danger coming.”

  Anna frowned. “We’ve been looking. There is no evidence of anything.”

  “I should be part of the search.”

  “Just because your old mentor is the one who suggested that there’s something more to fear doesn’t mean that you need to be searching.” She rested a hand on his arm, and it felt as if she called on her own magic and pressed it into him, leaving his skin tingling. That might only be his reaction to her, though. “You need to understand who and what you are. You have been away from the people for too long, Gavin. This cannot be rushed.”

  He didn’t pull away, but he felt as though he needed to. He didn’t have the answers he wanted, and he wasn’t sure if Anna would be able to provide him with anything more.

  “I’m not trying to rush anything,” he said. “What I am trying to do, though, is to fully understand the power I have. All of it.” He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. So far, since coming here, he hadn’t even had the opportunity to use it. Being able to fight was another part of his role as Champion, and he was still surprised that the El’aras would want him to abandon it. “I have this ring, the blade, and my own ability—”

  “Ability that you have not yet begun to fully understand,” Anna said softly. “Certain things take time.”

  Gavin smiled at her. “If I take the time you want, or that Master Jaremal wants, I’ll be studying with the El’aras for decades.” Or longer, he didn’t add.

  “You have made that same objection before.”

  “It doesn’t change the truth of it. We don’t necessarily have decades.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He resisted the urge to explain the obvious.

  When he had last seen Tristan, he’d warned Gavin that there was something worse coming. Gavin didn’t know what it was, and Tristan had been unnecessarily opaque about it, likely because he feared the El’aras for some reason that Gavin didn’t fully understand. But he increasingly felt as if Tristan had been training him to do something far more than what he knew. Maybe it was simply about becoming the Chain Breaker and doing what he had managed to do so far. Gavin had prevented powerful sorcerers from succeeding in their goals, but that didn’t seem to be the entire purpose behind what Tristan wanted from him. It couldn’t be.

  He chose not to argue with Anna. “I don’t think I have as long as you do. And I’m trying to learn at the pace that you and Master Jaremal think is appropriate. I’m just not accustomed to spending so much time on the basics.”

  She grinned and motioned for him to follow. They headed into the settlement, making their way along the trampled path between several buildings. It looked as if the grasses had once been taller, overgrowing much of this clearing in the middle of the forest. The scent of the earth filled his nostrils, and blades of grass sprung up with each step. Gavin found it surprising that the grass hadn’t died off.

  The smell of smoke drifted out of each building they passed. Savory aromas of baked goods mingled with cinnamon, a hint of mint, a touch of clove, and even boselberry—something he had thought rare and had known when he was younger. As they moved farther away, he detected the smell of hot metal and heard the steady clang of steel.

  Gavin still hadn’t been able to determine if the settlement had always been active, or if it had become active when Anna had escorted him out of Yoran. He had thought she was leading him into the heart of the El’aras lands, but she had only guided him to the settlement. He knew the full El’aras territories were farther from here, deeper into the forest and beyond. As far as he could tell, he was only several weeks away from the border of the forest and from the edge of Yoran and other lands.

  “Have you been able to detect anything around us?” Anna asked.

  “What am I supposed to detect?”

  Her question felt like a test, the same kind that Master Jaremal had been putting him through. With Anna, though, Gavin wasn’t entirely sure if she was testing him or simply asking questions. It could be either. Or neither.

  “I was hoping that perhaps you might recognize what others like you have been doing.”

  Gavin cast a sideways look at her. “Others like me?”

  “You continue to feel as if you are not among the people.”

  “It’s more that I don’t feel like I belong.” He wasn’t sure how to explain it to her. These weren’t his people. While he increasingly believed that he was truly El’aras, he wasn’t one of them. It was about more than just being of the same bloodline. It was about who he was, which was something he was still figuring out.

  She smiled again. “Would you prefer to go somewhere else?”

  Gavin looked around. “I agreed to come here.”

  “You did.”

  “And I agreed that there’s a benefit in me coming here. I agreed that I can learn.”

  “You can. The difference is whether or not you are willing to.”

  He let out a laugh. “Now both you and Master Jaremal are disappointed in my ability?”

  “There is no disappointment,” she said. “You must find your own path.”

  They paused in front of a tall building shaped like a pyramid, which looked to have once been covered by the grass and vines that reached out of the forest. These signs of nature had faded away, retreating rather than being scrubbed free. This was an El’aras temple, though Gavin didn’t know what god or gods they worshipped. He knew next to nothing about their religion. Anna had claimed that they held his old friend Cyran in one of their temples until his escape. Was that one more thing she wanted Gavin to learn?

  She paused in front of the entrance. “I must show you something.” A note of indecision lingered in her voice, as though she wasn’t quite convinced that she should be revealing this to him.

  Gavin looked around. There weren’t many people in this part of the settlement. Were they staying clear of the temple? Or of him and Anna? He smiled at that thought.

  She was the Risen Shard, and he was the Champion. According to the prophecies the El’aras had learned of and believed, he and Anna were supposed to destroy each other. He had the feeling that some of the people expected the two of them to do battle, though Gavin had never felt any desire to harm her.

  Quite the opposite, in fact.

  Part of the reason he was here was because of his growing attraction to Anna, and the belief that if anyone could help him understand what he was supposed to be, it would be her. He didn’t know if she felt the same way, but there were times when he caught her glancing in his direction, which made him think that maybe she did.

  But Gavin was always aware that she had her own agenda as the Risen Shard. From the moment he’d met her, he had known that there were goals behind what she did, and behind who she was. She was a leader. He was a loner.

  “Now who’s the one to sound hesitant in what they need to do?” he teased.

  Anna looked over to him, her deep-blue eyes softening. “I’ve questioned whether I should do this from the moment we came here,” she said, her voice quiet, and she put her hands to the side. “It is the reason I chose this place. We called it Arashil. In the common tongue, I suppose it would mean—”

  “Place of power,” Gavin said. Anna arched an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of time. I’ve been studying your language.”

  “You’ve managed to pick it up that quickly?”

  He shrugged again. “Patterns,” he said with a small chuckle, shaking his head. “I can only imagine what Wrenlow would think of that.”

  Remembering his old friend caused his chest to tighten, the way it often did. Wrenlow had traveled with Gavin for the better part of several years, only to stay b
ehind in Yoran. Gavin had felt compelled to move on because he had known it was his time, much like it was finally Wrenlow’s time to stay in one place, establish himself, and have a home.

  “Very few have managed to master the El’aras language in such a short time,” Anna said.

  He furrowed his brow. “I don’t know if I would call it mastery. Perhaps you could say recognition? I recognize there are patterns to the language, much like there patterns to everything you’ve been trying to teach me since I’ve come here.” He glanced over to her, and he snorted at the frown on her face. “I would think that you would be pleased by this. Isn’t that what you want me to do?”

  She regarded him for a long moment before finally nodding. “I suppose that it is. I have wanted you to understand, and if it takes you learning the language…” She shook her head. “Perhaps he did better than he realized.”

  “He?” Gavin asked.

  “Your old mentor. Perhaps he trained you even better than he knew.”

  “I didn’t expect you to stand up for him.”

  “That’s not what I’m doing. I’m recognizing the benefits of his training.”

  She took a step toward the temple, and she traced her hand across the surface of the flat stone. Pale-blue lines began to glow. Gavin had seen similar lines before, beneath Yoran. When he had been in the El’aras hall under the city, lines like these had shown him the prophecy, which led him to question what Anna might be able to show him here. This area was as old as Yoran, he suspected. Maybe even older. This place of power was sacred to these people.

  Anna let energy flow out from her and into the door. “I hesitated to bring you here,” she admitted. “And not because I fear you seeing this,” she added, though it seemed almost like an afterthought, as if she wasn’t sure whether she should acknowledge that. “But more because I did not know how you might react.”